Hidden Tbilisi With Valentina Gunina

Fresh from her victory in the Batumi Grand Prix tournament, following which she looks virtually certain to win the entire series, Valentina Gunina set off to discover Tbilisi.

Here too she met other female players – for lunch rather than to play chess. But not only.

Throughout her trip to Georgia Valentina was accompanied by her Mother – whose presence brings her luck.

Several kilometres from Tbilisi, near Georgia’s ancient capital city of Mtskheta, by the Jvari monastery. The scene shows the intersection of two rivers. Nearby (but not visible in the picture) the Georgian Military Road runs all the way to Vladikavkaz – or, depending on how you look at it, to Tbilisi.
But you aren’t reading this for geography lessons! Let us introduce you to two more great players away from the board: Bela Khotenashvili and Alexandra Vakhania.

Valentina is into fortune telling with coffee beans. In fact she read all our fortunes, but I can’t remember mine.

Mtskheta market, especially for tourists. Here we are choosing some souvenirs.

No mention of Putin here – Stalin is the local attraction.

A sudden May shower created an even prettier picture.

Valentina likes shooting. In fact, you had better watch out – she’s quite a hot shot!

Her eyes lit up the moment she saw the shooting gallery. Nana Dzagnidze and her husband Lasha are watching in the background.

The guest was given ten bullets – if nine hit the target then she gets to choose a prize.

Valentina scored 8 out of 10. That score in chess would be enough to win just about any tournament you can think of, but not in shooting. But Georgia would not be Georgia, and the shooting gallery manager could hardly claim to be a true Georgian, if the latter failed to provide our heroine with one more chance. So he pulled another bullet out of his pocket. Who knows, maybe he kept it there for the end of the world, and this lady that had made such an impression on him saved him from using it...

"If you hit the target we’ll call it 9 out of 10," he said.

Valentina shot the yellow boar as cold-bloodedly as when she finishes off her opponents in the fifth hour of her chess games. Another victory!

I bet that Valentina wouldn’t say no to children’s toys herself, but Nana has two children so she was granted the right to choose and keep the prize.

Смотрите также...

Our photo-correspondent paid another visit to the Russian Team Championship at the Zhemchuzhina Hotel, Sochi. On this occasion Mikhail Sholudko found not only old faces in the playing hall but also the heroine of a currently popular song in Russia by Sergey Shnurov (which can be viewed with English subtitles here - be sure to select the required subtitle language via the Settings icon on the video's screen). His hand nevertheless remained steady and his camera intact.

Valentina Gunina and Alexandra Kosteniuk, who returned to Moscow after the competitions in Batumi, were given a special reception in their honour in the Central Writers' House. The Blitz World Champion and the Rapid Vice-Champion were congratulated by the FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the Head of the Moscow Chess Federation (MCF) Vladimir Palikhata and by the first Deputy Head of Moscomsport (Moscow Sport Committee) Nikolai Gulyayev.

The first day of the Women's World Blitz Championship has finished today in Batumi, Georgia. The Russian player Valentina Gunina is an undoubted hero of it. After she had 3 points out of three rounds Gunina wondered "How lucky I am". Gunina continued "being lucky" throughout all the following rounds. Valentina outplayed Georgians Chiburdanidze, Khukhashvili, Georgian Spanish Matnadze, Ukrainians Muzychuk Mariya and Natalia Zhukova, Chinese Tan Zhongyi and Cori Deysi of Peru.

The participants of the annual "Snowdrops versus Oldhands" competitionspent their free day differently. The organizer of the tournament Pavel Matocha suggested young players to go for skiing, however, Valentina Gunina and Alina Kashlinskaya decided shopping in Prague would be more exciting. Tania Sachdev was the only one to choose skiing.

The European Champion Valentina Gunina shared her impressions with us at the end of the third game of the match Anand - Gelfand. She was satisfied with how she spent the time in the commentary room with the official commentator of the match Ilia Smirin and yesterday's guest Dmitry Jakovenko, "I even guessed variations!"

Valentina Gunina gains another win in the women's Superfinal of the Russian Championship. This time she beat Evgenia Ovod. In the commentary to our website, Valentina told about her victory. Namely, she remembered Mark Dvoretsky who has been coaching her for five days: " I hope he'll notice my move 27...Kh8".

As we've already reported Tania Sachdev was the only "Snowdrop" to choose skiing on a rest day. Chess-News has also got pictures showing how have spent the free day Valentina Gunina and Alina Kashlinskaya. These young ladies preferred to stroll the streets of Prague, it turned out Valya Gunina has visited Czech capital for the first time.